Vergne fitness fears for Paris after clash with Piquet

Jean-Eric Vergne is a doubt for this weekend’s Paris ePrix after damaging his hand in Monaco.

The Frenchman collided with Nelson Piquet Jr and will now need X-rays before he will know if he can compete in his home race.

His hand was bandaged immediately after the incident, and speaking to Motorsport.com Vergne said, “Right now, he destroyed my race here and maybe also the next one in Paris.

“I’m going to do everything to be fit for Paris but when you’re injured you never know what’s happened in the body.”

It added injury to insult after he believed Piquet deliberately ran him into the barrier as he tried to pass him around the outside of turn three.

With overtaking difficult on the tight Monaco layout Vergne was tried a daring move to pass the much slower NextEV TIO of Piquet.

He had managed to draw level with him when Piquet appeared to run him into the barriers.

Vergne said he had not spoken to Piquet after the race, but was entirely sure of his case, saying “We didn’t speak. I hope he regrets it because he cannot hide. I’m not trying to protect my case – it was pretty obvious what happened.

“It’s not my perspective, it’s what happened, it’s fact. I’m not exaggerating anything. I passed him on the brakes and he outbraked himself totally and used my car to stop and rotate.

“I received two big hits in the middle of the corner and we were side-by-side on exit. He just squeezed me on the outside as the wall comes back and I ended up in the wall and hurt my hand.”

For his part Piquet claimed that Vergne turned in on him, and that he thought the Frenchman would back off.

Speaking to Motorsport.com Piquet said, “JEV is usually an aggressive, strong guy – he doesn’t take chances, he likes to push the boundaries.

“I thought he would back off because clearly I would not let him past on the outside, and he turned into me.

“Once I got back the car just snapped, it touched him and we were stuck with each other and the wall comes back to us over there. I was lucky to get away with it.

“It’s a shame, I hate that it happened with him and I hate these kinds of situations.

“I don’t like bad feelings and I’m sure he’s very upset and thinks I did it on purpose, but I was just going to defend my position.”

The incident has all but ruined Vergne’s chances of challenging for this year’s title, as he now stands 64 points behind the leader Sebastien Buemi.